The present invention relates to doors and, more particularly, to door assemblies having a door sweep or seal along the bottom edge.
As is well known, it is desirable to provide weatherstripping and sealing elements on the edges of entry doors to minimize the passage of air thereby and the intrusion of rain and dirt into the interior of the building. Accordingly, it is customary to provide some form of weatherstripping element along the latch side of the door and a sealing element along the bottom edge of the door to make sealing contact with the threshold or sill.
The typical sealing element for the bottom edge of the door is a sweep with at least one depending and resiliently deflectable leg which will bridge the gap between the bottom edge of the door and the top surface of the sill or threshold. Generally, two or more depending elements are provided and they are of longer dimension than the spacing so that they will be deflected and sweep the surface of the sill or threshold during the closing motion. Some sweeps and seals have a still longer depending leg which will seal against the interior face of the sill.
Such bottom sweeps and seals are frequently secured by screws or nails driven into the bottom edge of the door or to the face of the door adjacent the bottom edge. In some instances, a channel may be routed or otherwise formed in the bottom edge of the door into which a resiliently compressible arm on the sweep is inserted to frictionally retain the sweep on the door.
Although a wide variety of sweeps or seals may be employed in connection with wooden doors and mounted thereof by fasteners, doors with synthetic resin or metal skins generally require special structures on the skins to seat the bottom sweep, or a special construction for the sweep. As a result, some entry doors employing metal and plastic skins are sold with the sweep assembled in place and this can present a substantial problem from the standpoint of replacement of a sweep which may become worn or damaged. Moreover, the use of mechanical fastening elements or adhesives can be detrimental to the life of synthetic plastic skins.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a novel entry door sweep which can be readily assembled to the bottom of a cooperating entry door and readily replaced in the event that it is damaged or deteriorates.
It is also an object to provide a door assembly with such a sweep which firmly seats upon the door without fasteners and is self-positioning to ensure its proper location along the bottom edge of the door.
Another object is to provide a door assembly with such a sweep which is readily reversible to enable reversal of the door opening direction while maintaining desirable sealing action.
Still another other object is to provide a door assembly employing such a sweep which will exhibit relatively long life and in which the mounting of the sweep will not affect deterioration of or injury to the bottom edge of the door.